The Legacy of Neon Genesis Evangelion
Trends come and go. Things that used to be fashionable fall out of style, and shows that used to be popular drop off of the face of the earth without a second thought. However, some things never get old. And in Japan, that something is the epic Anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion. Even though Evangelion has just become 12 years old, its creator, Hideaki Anno, said that, "[O]ver the past 12 years, there has been no anime newer than Eva."

And for good reason. After all this time, there are still mysteries to be unraveled about the series, from the massive amount of references to Christian mythos, to the cryptic, psychoanalytical ending of the original series, to the apocalyptic End of Evangelion, the alternate ending that raised far more questions than it provided answers. It's been re-released at least three times, with the low-quality episodes 21-26 entirely re-animated and remastered for the new releases. However, that's not all that Neon Genesis Evangelion has going for it.

During my trip to Japan, Neon Genesis Evangelion was absolutely everywhere that I turned. There was no way to get away from it, its presence was that large. Here are some of the more interesting and amusing places that it popped up.

- Convenience stores in Japan such as Circle-K, Lawson Station, and Seven-Eleven oftentimes carry Anime figurines in the stores for sale. In a number of places, there were for sale figurines of the EVAs or of the Angels, and one store in particular had for sale in the figurine section a huge 12-inch figure of Unit 00 on sale for 3000 Yen. I was tempted to buy it, but realized that there was no way I'd ever make it home with it in one piece, so I opted against it.

- The Japanese have a great love of fireworks, and during the summer season, there are fireworks shows held on a regular basis that easily eclipse even the biggest Fourth-of-July shows in the US. Near the end of our trip, my father and I visited one near the city we stayed in. This particular fireworks show was approximately an hour long, and was done in shifts, with each two or three minute burst of fireworks being fired in tandem with a particular piece of music. The music that accompanied the opening burst of fireworks? You guessed it- the opening theme of Neon Genesis Evangelion, The Cruel Angel's Thesis, playing for the opening of a massive summer fireworks show.

-This last one needs a little explanation. Pachinko is a form of pseudo-legalized gambling in Japan, and Pachinko (and Slot) parlors are absolutely everywhere in Japan, and every single one is packed 24-7. Pachinko is basically a rapid-fire pinball machine that, with a little luck, activates a slot reel in the middle, which will sometimes pay out a massive amount of balls, which can either be fed back into the machine or traded in to the house. Of course, gambling for money is illegal in Japan, so the balls in question are traded in for tokens that can be spent on various prizes ranging from cigarette lighters and pens, to low-end electronics, to even things like 50cc scooters. Of course, this isn't enough for the average gambler, so near every Pachinko parlor is a place similar to a pawn shop that buys prizes from players in exchange for cash. In order to drum up more business, Pachinko machines commonly have designs that are meant to attract the player and keep them engaged. The latest trend in Pachinko machines is to have machines with designs based on Neon Genesis Evangelion, of course, with the machines featuring screens that will periodically show footage from the show, especially during payout periods, in order to keep the player interested and playing.

It's amazing that a show can have such a massive country-wide following, but it's unsurprising for a show of Evangelion's quality. Until Next Time...
09:33 PM PDT Permalink |

The Return of the Blog
Well, I'm finally back from my trip to Japan, and I must say that I had an absolute blast over there. My father and I spend a good six weeks wandering about Japan, from the urban jungle of Tokyo to the rural northern areas of Japan. Over the past six weeks, I did the following:

- The majority of the trip was spent in the care of the Shimizu family, and without them, the trip wouldn't have been possible. They allowed us to stay in their home in Kofu for the time we were there, provided us with a car, and many other things that made the trip possible.

- A trip to Tokyo in which I visited the place of my birth, as well as the Kamakura Daibutsu, a massive copper Buddha once housed inside a great wooden temple until a tsunami washed over it, sweeping away all but the statue. An amazing sight, and one that I hope to see again in the future.

- A huge week-long trip up to Hokkaido, in which we stayed for three days in Sapporo with another member of the Shimizu family before making our way down Northern Japan, with stops in Hakodate, Aomori, Ojiya, and Kanazawa. An amazing trip through rural Japan with many sights that the average tourist never gets to see.

- A second trip to Tokyo, only this time to visit the famed "Electric Town" of Akihabara. Akihabara is the stuff of legends, a place that must be seen to be believed. An oasis of anything computer, game, or Anime-related, Akihabara is the place where you'll find anything you could ever want.

- To end the trip, the father of the Shimizu family is a doctor, and every year hosts a Sumo Wrestling camp for some med students. Since I was in the area at the time, I got to participate in this, and I must say that it was an absolutely amazing experience. Sumo Wrestling has a lot more tactics and finesse than it seems at first glance, and it was a great way to end an excellent trip.

To catch back up, I'll be writing two blogs a week for the next six weeks- the blog will be updated on Wednesday and Saturday/Sunday. Thanks to all my readers.

Until Next Time...
12:39 PM PDT Permalink |

Bound For Japan

On Thursday, July 3rd, I'll be leaving on a six-week vacation to Japan with my father, lasting from July 3rd until August 17th. As of right now, our plans aren't entirely finalized, but I'm sure that whatever we end up doing there will be absolutely amazing. My internet access will likely be spotty at best, so the Blog won't be updated for a while, but rest assured that I'll return with plenty of amazing stories about my travels.

Until Next Time...
04:17 PM PDT Permalink |

Kung Fu Panda- Fun On A Grand Scale
I'll admit- I'm rarely excited about new movies when they come out- the majority of new movies are uninspired and uninteresting. However, every once in a while, there's a movie that really manages to pique my interest and get me motivated to see it. This most recent one is Kung Fu Panda, an animated Martial Arts Comedy in the style of the old Jackie Chan movies, with an all-star cast of actors doing the voicework. With Jack Black as the lead, Kung Fu Panda was a movie that gave me even more than the high expectations I had for it.

Jack Black plays Po, a panda whose dreams of being a Kung Fu master seem impossible from his life as the son of the owner of a noodle shop. However, when the great Tai Lung (Ian McShane), a brutal leopard warrior, escapes from his legendary prison, the Dragon Warrior must be named from the great Furious Five- Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Viper (Lucy Liu), Crane (David Cross), Mantis (Seth Rogan), and Monkey (Jackie Chan). However, it would appear that the universe has its own agenda, and Po finds himself being chosen as the legendary Dragon Warrior, heir to the Dragon Scroll that holds the key to infinite power, much to the dismay of Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), the sensei of the Furious Five and the only student of Oogway, an ancient tortoise and creator of Kung Fu.

I loved everything about Kung Fu Panda. The animation is beautiful, and it creates an amazing atmosphere for the rest of the film. The voice casting was excellent, especially Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman, whose work absolutely makes the film what it is. The battle sequences are well-choreographed and have that same slapstick fighting style that made the old Jackie Chan movies so great. The entire movie was excellent from start-to-finish, and I can't even think of a single criticism to draw upon.

Until Next Time...
07:40 PM PDT Permalink |

Final Fantasy 3: Square's Latest Revival
In the history of the Final Fantasy series, there have been a couple that never really made it state-side. The first two, Final Fantasy 2 and Final Fantasy 5, were remade for the Game Boy Advance, and were met with relative success. With this same idea in mind, Final Fantasy 3 was remade for the newly released Nintendo DS, updated with new Jobs, new equipment, and a fully 3D game world. The plot was pretty standard for the early Final Fantasy games- the world is shrouded in darkness caused by an evil entity, and four Warriors of Light must travel around the world in search of the legendary Crystals and gain power in order to defeat an ultimate evil.

Final Fantasy 3 introduced the Job system, a system that allows the player to choose customizable classes for their characters, thus allowing the largest degree of versatility for the player. This system would return in Final Fantasy 5, and then much later in Final Fantasy X-2. As you progress through the game, you will meet the Crystals, each of which pertaining to a specific enemy. Each one unlocks a set of jobs, thus allowing more and more options for team setups as the game goes on. Each class has its own base stats, which change depending on the class equipped, and each class can equip certain types and levels of magic, as well as certain types of equipment. Also, each job levels on its own via Job Levels, which primarily affects the class' special ability, as well as Mages' magic power and Monks' unarmed attacks. Magic is handled differently from any other FF game: instead of having set MP, magic is organized into levels. More powerful magic is higher level, and certain classes can equip certain levels and types of magic. Every class that can cast Magic has a limited number of casts in each magic level- At any given level, you can only cast so much magic of each level until you must heal at an Inn or a restoration fountain.

Unfortunately, the game has many shortcomings which impair the experience. The touch-screen inputs are unwieldy, and the abilities of the DS are rather underused. The Top Screen isn't used in battle or in dungeons, and its only use is for the World Map, which is the part of the map that players will see the least. The Job system implements a penalty for changing classes, and as such, players are discouraged from taking advantage of the versatility that changing classes affords. Many of the classes are entirely useless, either being outclassed by other classes or just not being useful in general. The difficulty ramps up far faster than the power of the party, and often, regular enemies will two-shot party members, and bosses will one-shot them, forcing the player to endure boring grinding in order to even progress at all. The inventory screen doesn't allow you to examine items closely, meaning that while certain equipment will give bonuses to stats, it's impossible to know what does what because it's never mentioned anywhere. And last, but certainly not least, the plot never actually does anything. There's never more than two plot scenes in any given story "arc", characters are never relevant past their initial arrival in the game, and the characters are entirely without depth. Also, there are very few opportunities to save the game, and with the insane power of some of the bosses, you'll find yourself having to truck through the entire dungeon again, since the last time you could save was on the World Map at the beginning of the area.

All in all, my opinion of Final Fantasy 3 is much like my opinion of a later game with the same style- Final Fantasy X-2. The combat system is fun, and the gameplay is unteresting, but the plot and mechanics make it unwieldy and hard to enjoy the game to the fullest. FF3 is a time-waster at best, but it's good for quick RPG action without a lot of involvement. Until Next Time...
03:48 PM PDT Permalink |

Evolution Of A Series: A Look At The Mechanics of the Final Fantasy Series
Every once in a while, Square-Enix decides to stop making mediocre new Final Fantasy titles and return to its glorious roots; where the Final Fantasy name stood for the latest and greatest in RPG breakthroughs, and everyone eagerly awaited and snapped up each new title. Of course, there were a couple that aren't as well-known as their cousins- the series was dismantled in its translation stateside- the original Final Fantasy was the first, of course, but then the series took a detour. Final Fantasy 2 and 3 never made it stateside- when Final Fantasy 4 was released, it was better known here as Final Fantasy 2, and the classic Final Fantasy 6 was released as Final Fantasy 3. Of course, this numerical error was rectified when Final Fantasy made its glorious return onto the fledgling Playstation console and took the great leap forward into 3-D rendering, a big step up from the spritework of the rest of the series.

Of course, when the titles were finally re-released in their remastered forms, it's obvious why the titles got cut. Final Fantasy 2 came packaged with the GBA remake of the original Final Fantasy, making up the Dawn of Souls double-pack. The primary failing of Final Fantasy 2 was that it tried too hard. It went from player-controlled and named characters with predetermined classes such as Warrior, Monk, and White Mage... to characters with fully developed personalities, plotlines, and backstories. Also, characters had no class restrictions. Players determined the stat layouts of their characters specifically by how they used them. Characters that attacked more had more Strength, characters that got hit more had more HP, characters that cast more magic became more able spellcasters. No EXP, no "level ups," no fake factors by which one could quantify their characters' strengths. It simulated as real a battlefield as possible... which was its failing.

It was entirely possible, through patient training, for characters to max out any and all stats simply training in the beginning areas- against one another. One character would hit another for massive damage, and the character that got hit would receive a permanent HP boost in return. Characters could equip two shields, and their attack would be useless- but by swinging the heavy shields at nothing, they would boost their Strength. Of course, this was balanced by the fact that characters dropped like flies. At four different points in the game, a character would join your party, fight in exactly one dungeon, and then die on the spot. This, of course, frustrated players that liked to put effort into leveling certain characters. (When done in later games, this was rectified by allowing characters that permanently left your party, such as Marcus in FF9, to affect other characters through their training.)

Final Fantasy 3 decided to return to the delineated class system, but only halfway. Each character's class is determined by the "Job" that they're currently in. Any character can be anything, and the currently equipped job affected their current base stats, their equippable weapons, the magic they could cast, and the special abilities they can use. It was unrefined, but it allowed a great deal of customization for your characters. Players could have any team combination they could dream up.

Final Fantasy 4 abandoned both methods of customization, and instead used the class system as a method of conveying the plot. (WARNING: If you haven't played Final Fantasy 4 yet, there will be spoilers here. Oh, and shame on you for not playing such a great game. Go find it and play it.) The main character, Cecil, starts out the game as a Dark Knight, but becomes dissatisfied with his evil nature, and goes and undertakes a great ordeal to become a Paladin. He trades his ability to use some of the best weapons in the game and a REALLY cool attack for some increased defensive stats, Cover, and the ability to cast rudimentary White Magic. Tellah's "Sage" class can cast rudimentary Black Magic, but can also use its special ability to gamble on Tellah's bad memory and possibly pull up some amazing stuff. Rydia starts as a basic White Mage, but eventually learns to tap into her Summoner heritage and get some badass monsters to summon. So on, so forth. Instead of letting each character have a varied ability set, each character has a specific role, and you can mix-and-match any of the ten characters to create a balanced five-man party, the largest in the Final Fantasy series, and probably abandoned shortly after due to being overkill and making the game easy. This style returns in Final Fantasy 9, as well as Final Fantasy 10, using a number of varied characters to create a balanced team of the player's choosing.

Final Fantasy 5 almost needs no mention. Another game that got shuffled off to the side in translation, it brings back the Job system, only with one key refinement. Each character class has one open slot that allows it to borrow another class's special ability, creating cool mix-and-match classes to make each character even more customizable. Really an excellent class system.

Final Fantasy 6 brings in the final and most often used class system. With the advent of magic-teaching items (Magicite/Espers in 6, Materia in 7, GFs/Drawn Magic in 8), characters were only limited by their equipment and their special abilities. This placed a lot more emphasis on characters that had useful combat abilities, but had the side effect of rendering half of the characters in each game utterly useless due to mediocre abilities/stats/equipment. Still, it's an excellent system that may make its comeback yet.

Final Fantasy 10-2 used a very interesting twist on the Job system. You could use frames known as Dress Sphere Grids to change your job mid-battle. A character that was a physical powerhouse Warrior one moment could switch to a benign healer or a magically destructive Black Mage. Strategies could change on the fly depending on what the team needed the most at the time. However, each character had to devote themselves somewhat to the classes that they wanted to use the most- in order to unlock the full potential of each class, that class needed to gain AP and learn its requisite skills. This meant that while it was entirely plausible to have a lot of classes available at one time, it was much more common just to use one loadout for each character and hope it works.

I'm sure the next generation of Final Fantasy games will bring in even more interesting twists on old mechanics to inspire and entertain its players. Until Next Time...
01:01 AM PDT Permalink |

Let's Play!- Gaming Masochism At Its Best
The Something Awful forums has always been an example of how entertainment on the internet can bloom when exposed to the insanity of people on the internet. You can find discussion on anything on the Something Awful forums. And hidden away as a subforum of the Gaming forum is a small forum known as Let's Play! In this forum, people choose a game, and then, through various mediums such as screenshots, transcribed dialogue, subtitled video, or audio-commentary video, they provide watchers with a gaming experience that is just as good, if not better, than playing the game yourself.

Every Let's Play thread tends to have its own gimmick, and every LPer has their own style, which lends to the feeling of their threads. The games that are LPed range from the relatively new (any game that's been out for at least 6 months is fair game), to the ancient (SNES, Genesis, even old text-based adventure games), to the customized (ROM Hacks of popular games such as Super Metroid and Super Mario World). The authors of these threads regularly update, putting a fun spin on the game that they choose to exhibit for their readers/watchers' pleasure.

Some of the games played are stupidly easy, and they're usually done for the amusing features of their plot, or some gimmick that the LPer chooses. Others, such as the ROM Hacks of certain games like Super Mario World are ATROCIOUSLY difficult, and most videos simply descend into an incomprehensible cloud of gibberish and obscenities. At that point, the real amusement comes from either watching the suffering of the LPer, or watching them prove victorious against even the most difficult of gaming challenges.

There's no cost to view the forums, but it does cost 10 dollars to buy an account and post on the forums, You can find the Let's Play forum here on the Something Awful forums. There's also an excellent Let's Play Archive where you can find a lot of the classic LPs preserved for general enjoyment. Go check it out, you won't be disappointed. Until Next Time...
02:06 PM PDT Permalink |

Tsukihime- A Vampiric Love Story
Anyone who knows me knows that I can't stand most random lovey-dovey stuff in the Anime that I watch. It's why I've never been much of a fan of most romantic series, but there are always some exceptions to this rule. The first exception, of course, is the downright amazing series Elfen Lied, which balances random romance with violence, gore, and general awesomeness, as well as being pretty perfect in most every way. The next is this week's blog entry, Tsukihime.

Tsukihime is an interesting case. It was produced by Type-Moon in 2000 as an H-game, a visual novel aimed at adult audiences- something similar to the old Choose Your Own Adventure books, but with hentai popping up every once in a while to reward the adult buyers. However, there are a number of interesting things about it. First, you can install the game as a non-hentai novel, which is actually not a bad decision since the scenes are largely superfluous given the absolutely phenomenal plot. Second, Tsukihime started as an H-game, which spawned a non-H-game sequel, an Anime series based on the main storyline path of the game, and the Melty Blood series of fighting games, the third of which was released in 2007, and the fourth of which has recently been announced. The Anime, Tsukihime: Lunar Legends, is actually quite good, but pales in comparison to the game, so if you want to watch it, you should watch it before reading through the game, as you'll enjoy the Anime a lot more before reading through the game.

Tsukihime follows the story of Shiki Tohno, a person who would be just an average high schooler, were it not for a catastrophic accident eight years earlier. This accident nearly resulted in Shiki's death, and as such, Shiki has gained an ability known as the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. When an item is created, its fate, or its "death" is already outlined. Shiki can see this "death" in the form of lines that appear on an object or on a living being, and can, by cutting these "lines" dissect anything into up to 17 pieces. In order to avoid being driven insane by the appearance of these lines, Shiki wears a special pair of glasses that prevent him from seeing the Lines of Death in his everyday life.

Of course, there's no real "storyline" in Tsukihime. The game plays like a choose-your-own-adventure book in that throughout the game, you are presented with choices that shape the outcome of the story. The five storylines of Tsukihime are each defined by the female character that Shiki pursues as a love interest, and the storyline you embark on depends on your choices in the game. Basically, each choice will earn you a "point" with that character, and if you get a certain amount of points toward a character, you end up officially on the character's path, and the storyline takes off from there. Each character has two endings: the True Ending, which is what really happens at the end of the story, or the Good Ending, where everyone lives all happily ever after. Beating one character's endings unlocks more choices for the next playthrough, allowing you to get the next character's path.

Unfortunately, Tsukihime is now out of print, and there are little to no legitimate non-eBay methods of obtaining the game. However, Seorin of the Something Awful Let's Play forum did a runthrough of the game, and an entire transcript of the game, with comments and other things, can be found here in the Let's Play Archive. Until Next Time...
03:48 PM PDT Permalink |

The Spoils of Fanime
First off, Fanimecon was AWESOME this year. There aren't words for how awesome getting to go to Fanime with my friends for the whole weekend was- I'd always been so limited by the schedule of the people I was traveling with that being able to take the whole weekend and make my own rules and my own schedule was absolutely awesome. I spent most of the time camping the Melty Blood: Act Cadenza cabinet (the first I'd ever seen), which was awesome, but I also got to have plenty of fun in the dealer room looking for souvenirs, and managed to find exactly what I wanted.

First up is the souvenir that I'd wanted to find from the beginning of the con. Originally, I'd wanted a set of figurines of the maids from Tsukihime, Kohaku and Hisui. No luck finding Kohaku, but I did manage to find one of Hisui (and that's the one that I wanted in the first place anyway).

That figurine is now sitting proudly atop my computer desk at home. I almost didn't find it, but one of my friends pointed it out to me while we were looking through the Dealer room, and I am infinitely grateful for that.

The next souvenir is yet another piece of wall decoration for my room. I currently have a signed Megatokyo poster, a signed Avenue Q cast poster, the "'04 Presidential Election Boxing Poster" from inside America: The Book, and a random M.C. Escher print. Joining it is this:

I spotted this on my first pass through the dealer room, and then went back for it later in the weekend. The place I originally saw it had sold out of it, so I almost thought I'd missed out on it entirely, but another dealer had a ton of them around, so the situation wasn't nearly as dire as I thought it was. It makes a great addition to my wall.

Last, but certainly not least, this shirt:

Let it be known that I'm a huge music nerd- I'm currently a music major at Sonoma State University, and so when I saw this shirt, I knew that I had to have it. Turns out the shirt comes from a shop called M. Folz, which carries plenty of awesome music and science-related shirts. Go check it out, I'm sure you won't be sorry.

Until Next Time...
03:31 PM PDT Permalink |

Preparing For Fanime
It's that time of year again- the Fanime Convention is coming to San Jose, and this time, I'm going all out. A friend of mine that I haven't seen in quite a while is finally coming back home, and so we're going to spend the weekend in San Jose having a ball at the convention. However, it's not all fun and games getting ready for the Convention. A lot of planning has gone into this for a number of reasons, but it'll all be worth it when the 23rd rolls around.

The first big element of planning has been getting everyone together. Plans have changed a lot over the time, but it'll be me and three friends in San Jose for the weekend, so I have to get everyone organized. I also had to pick up a hotel room for me and a friend, get the pre-registrations in, and make sure everyone knows what's going on. I'll still have to get everyone there, figure out the schedule, and decide what I want to see and do when I get there.

The next part was preparing my costumes. I'm going for a different costume for each day, and so I had to prepare a lot of different things. The three costumes I intend to use are my Mugen costume, my Wolfwood costume, and my Kakashi costume. For Wolfwood, I had to get a new pair of pants to replace the ones that I outgrew, since it's been about 3 years since I've worn it. I also had to reconstruct the most pain in the butt prop ever- the big frame that I use to be the frame for the Cross Punisher that Wolfwood carries around. I constructed it out of a big cardboard box bought from Office Depot, and it'll be swathed in a sheet and covered in belts for the authentic look. The other costumes didn't need nearly as much work, so that was a bit of a blessing.

I'll have an update next Tuesday when I'm back from the convention. Until Next Time...
01:17 PM PDT Permalink |

FLCL- For When Sanity Just Isn't Interesting Enough
Let's face it. Every once in a while, no matter how good the everyday can be, you still need a break. And that's where FLCL comes in. FLCL, also known as Fooly Cooly, is probably the most amazing nugget of insanity in Anime form I've ever seen. While a scant 6 episodes long, those 6 episodes served to both confuse, enthrall, and amaze me equally for the two hours that I spent watching it.

It's hard to say what exactly FLCL is about... so I guess I'll give as much of a summary as is possible for such a show. The show revolves around Naota, an average 6th grade boy... except for the part about everyone around him being absolutely insane. When Naota's brother leaves Japan to play baseball, he leaves behind his homeless girlfriend Mammimi, who proceeds to attach herself to Naota in a not entirely innocent manner, sending all kinds of mixed messages to him. Naota's situation is made even more complicated when Haruhara Haruko shows up in a rather explosive manner. Riding her signature yellow Vespa, Haruko shows up out of nowhere... and proceeds to smash Naota in the forehead with her weapon of choice, a four-stringed bass. Of course, when this fails, she proceeds to do it AGAIN. While not being fatal, it DOES cause a humanoid robot to pop out of his head (who knows why), as well as a huge robotic hand, which then proceed to become locked in a BATTLE TO THE DEATH.

That's where the first episode ends. Like I said, NONE of it makes sense, but that's what gives it the unique charm that it has. It's also filled with tons of injokes about other animated series, such as Lupin the 3rd, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and even South Park. An amazing show that will bewilder as much as it amuses, FLCL is worth every minute.

Until Next Time...
11:23 PM PDT Permalink |

Deconstructing A Formula: Trigun and Trinity Blood- Part 3: Analysis: Trinity Blood and Conclusion
Here's the long-awaited final part of the essay I wrote. Sorry about the delays, it's been Finals Week and Production Week for the SSU Chorus, so my time's been rather occupied. Once again, SPOILERS INSIDE.

Trinity Blood, produced seven years after the release of Trigun, follows a similar path. Set in a post-apocalyptic future where the only remaining populated land is Europe, power is split between two main forces—The Vatican, a revival of the ancient Holy Roman Empire, and the Empire of the Methuselah, a race of vampires that controls the area currently known as the Middle East. The main character, Abel Nightroad, is a priest and an agent of the AX, the arm of the military suited to stealth tasks and secret missions, as well as diplomatic missions aiming to secure a peace between the Vatican and the Empire. Of course, the AX is made up only of the most skilled officers, and Abel is no different. Like Vash, he has superhuman traits that set him apart from normal humans in power, reflex, and general ability. His power comes from his nature as a Cruznik, a human enhanced with Nanomachines that enhance his reflexes, his healing, and allow him to take the form of a vampire that feeds on the blood of other vampires. However, he characterizes himself as a sinner, having committed some unknown mortal sins in his past that he must atone for, and as a result, refuses to kill an enemy unless he is forced to. Sound familiar?

In keeping with this traditional storyline, Abel is opposed by the Order of Rosencreuz, a small group bent on increasing tensions between the Empire and the Vatican, in an attempt to create a grand holy war that would wipe out both sides, thus purging the planet of “impure life” that is bent on destroying one another. The mastermind behind all this is, of course, Abel’s brother Kain, who also has the powers of the Cruznik, but feels that this sets him apart from humanity and the vampires, and that he, as a more perfect being, should be able to wipe out life on Earth and replace it with his own more perfect race. Déjà vu, anyone?

Of course, with the introduction of the supporting cast, this is where the similarities end. Abel is accompanied by Sister Esther Blanchett, a woman whose family was murdered by a rogue vampire, and as such, holds an unending hatred for the vampiric race. She’s rash, but lacks the skill required to follow through with what she starts, often requiring Abel to bail her out of tough situations. The next member of the supporting cast is actually not a companion of Abel’s, but still plays a major role in the show. Ion Fortuna is a Methuselah prince that is dispatched on a diplomatic mission to the Vatican that goes awry through the efforts of the Order of Rosencreuz. He’s arrogant and stubborn, believing that all the world’s problems stem from the existence of the human race, and that the Methuselah are superior in every way. To this end, he has a bitter hatred of humans, and often this leads him into bad situations. If this sounds so familiar, it’s because Ester and Ion Fortuna are basically the same character with different genders and basic tooth structure. This leads to the two of them becoming the focus of many a side-plot, and a great deal of the show is devoted to the romance between the two of them. The final companion is less emphasized than the other two, but still plays her own part. Astaroche Asran, also Methuselah royalty, is yet another Methuselah that believes herself to be superior to all humans, to the point that she despises the human race. Of course, this only lasts as long as Abel shows up to bail her out of yet another bad situation, a recurring theme that stays with the show until the bitter end.

And what a bitter end it would be. While the majority of the show is phenomenal, the ending falls apart entirely. Approximately three episodes before the end of the show, Abel’s brother Kain shows up. He does so without warning or announcement, and his first action is to kill his brother. Yes, the main character is now dead, and there’s still three episodes to go. But fear not! The Vatican apparently has some form of Deus Ex Machina to save Abel in the form of an unexplained black liquid that appears to revive Abel from death. The origin of this substance is never revealed, nor what it is or what it does. Then, before the grand fight between the two, a five-minute backstory segment occurs, in which almost nothing is shown about the history or the relationship between the main character and his arch-nemesis except that one is good and one is very, very evil. Then, of course, the great battle erupts between the two of them. It’s flashy, and there’s no telling who’s going to win. Then suddenly, a bright flash envelops the screen and… what? The audience finds itself at a point in time after the conclusion of the battle. Esther, who turns out to be the crown princess of Albion, the country inhabiting what is now Great Britain, is being crowned Queen of Albion, and none of the supporting cast is to be seen anywhere. The scene cuts to a small island where Abel stands, swearing to hunt down his brother for as long as he lives. And standing behind him is none other than… Ion Fortuna? Yes, despite the massive relationship built up between Ion and Esther, and without rhyme or reason, he decides to run off with Abel to pursue the “ultimate evil” that plagues the world.

This is an example of how endings go wrong. First, the series introduced a character without any backstory or warning, forcing the audience to guess as to who the character is. It then proceeded to kill off the main character, requiring a convoluted and unexplained resolution to come out of nowhere and save everyone. When the story finally returned to its grand conclusion, the audience was again forced to infer the outcome of the final conflict between the main character and the primary villain. And when all was said and done, the series abandoned its relationships and had an ending that defied all logic and common sense as to how a series of its type would resolve. The romance between Esther and Ion Fortuna is completely abandoned, and Astaroche, the character that would be most likely to accompany the main character in a grand quest to defeat an ultimate evil, disappears entirely. An ending that creates such an atmosphere ruins the rest of the series, no matter how good it is, and wastes all the work put into creating good characters and relationships.

At first glance, Trigun and Trinity Blood look nothing alike. But a closer examination shows that while the formula stays the same, careful use of characterization and a compelling storyline can ser two very similar shows apart from one another, for better or for worse.
02:17 PM PDT Permalink |

Deconstructing A Formula: Trigun and Trinity Blood- Part 2: Analysis- Trigun
MORE SPOILERS D=

Trigun follows the adventures of Vash the Stampede, a legendary gunman whose skill is only matched by his penchant for flagrant and flamboyant destruction—so much so that he’s earned a sixty billion dollar bounty on his head, and has been classified as the first human natural disaster. At least, that’s what he’s made out to be. In reality, while he is truly a gunman of incredible skill, he has taken an oath never to kill a living being, and much of the destruction that is pinned on him is actually the fault of an organization known as the Gung Ho Guns that constantly hunts him. The Gung Ho Guns are the minions of Millions Knives, Vash’s twin brother, who has decided that he is a superior being in every way to normal humans, and that in order to purify the world, he has to exterminate humanity and repopulate it with a more perfect species. Along the way, Vash is accompanied by Milly Thompson and Meryl Strife, insurance agents tasked with reducing the damage caused by the first human natural disaster, as well as Nicholas D. Wolfwood, a priest with a spotted past, a massive cross-shaped machine gun as his weapon, and the skill to use it effectively. One of the defining characteristics of this style of storytelling is that all of the secondary characters play the role of foil to the main character in one way or another. In the case of Trigun, Vash is accompanied by Meryl Strife and Milly Thompson, agents of the Bernardelli Insurance Company. Each one represents an opposition to Vash’s personality. Meryl can best be described as the straight man in the trio. Her adherence to order and protocol almost invariably conflicts with Vash’s carefree nature, which tends to cause tension between the two, as it is Meryl’s job to try and restrain Vash and prevent him from causing even more damage that her company has to cover. Meanwhile, Milly shows a different side of Vash. Milly is rash, often thinking before she does things, and is controlled primarily by her emotions, which tend to pull her all over the place, dragging Vash invariably to her aid. Wolfwood, on the other hand, is a much more direct foil. Despite being a preacher and professed holy man, he also has incredible skill with firearms, and is later revealed to be a member of the Gung Ho Guns tasked with keeping surveillance on Vash and later killing him. The main conflict comes from the fact that Wolfwood’s main method of dealing with threats is far more direct than Vash’s, and he has no qualms about killing his opponents, and would often do so if not restrained by Vash.

Of course, there can be no great quest without an enemy to oppose the main character. This enemy is Millions Knives, twin brother of Vash the Stampede and leader of the Gung Ho Guns. While his motives are hidden for the majority of the series, the second to last episode is composed entirely of backstory, something that is vital to this type of show, as we generally come in with less knowledge of the world and the characters than is necessary to piece together the plot. Vash and Knives are members of an unknown humanoid race found during a spaceflight to find a suitable new planet to replace Earth after all of its natural resources are used up. They appear human, but are immortal—While Vash and Knives both appear to be no older than their middle-to-late twenties, they are actually 116 years old, and their heritage affords them supernatural durability and reflexes. While Vash believes that this puts him in a position to become a protector for humanity in a new and dangerous environment, Knives thinks that humanity has become superfluous, and that they are nothing more than inferior pests to be exterminated. This leads up to the climactic final conflict between the two, where Vash refuses to kill his brother, and instead simply incapacitates him, picks him up, and walks off into the desert. A prime example of the Open Ending, if there ever was one. The storyline has been wrapped up, but it’s clear that the main character’s journey is far from over.

03:42 PM PDT Permalink |

Deconstructing A Formula: Trigun and Trinity Blood- Part 1: Criteria and Formula
Yet more SPOILER ALERTS abound in this article.

I was tasked with writing a critical essay in a field that I have expertise on in English, so of course, I wrote on Anime. Specifically, the differences and similarities between Trigun and Trinity Blood.

Over the past few years, Japanese Animation, or Anime, has been steadily growing in the entertainment industry, with popular series popping up everywhere, conventions being held across the country that attract thousands of die-hard fans apiece, and more and more companies are getting in on the lucrative business that is importing new series and translating them for American audiences. And while the industry continues growing and new series continue to be released, some of the best Anime to come out is many years old, written before certain themes or ideas became clichéd or outdated.

There are a number of criteria by which an Anime series can be judged. Generally, many of the criteria overlap with those used to judge movies, but a case can be made that more scrutiny is placed on some points due to the vastly increased amount of time spent per series—Movies last two to three hours a piece, while the shortest series is generally at least thirteen episodes or just over six hours long. As such, the basis for judging an Anime series is slightly different. The most important is characterization. Given how long a series lasts, the viewer is going to be tied to the characters in the show for a very long time. As such, having well-developed, convincing, and captivating characters is the most important element of any series. And with that comes the need to completely build and reinforce the relationships between the characters. A character’s true colors are shown by the way he or she interacts with the other characters in the show, so this is the most important part of effectively creating a compelling character. Another major part of any series is staying true to its genre. If a series is characterized as Action, then it should carry with it a large amount of well-choreographed action scenes to captivate its audience. A Romance series should capitalize on the interaction between the male and female leads. And of course, the ending gets a special mention.

It should be intuitive that a series should always wrap up all loose ends before the grand finale of the show. There are two main ways of doing this: the Closed Ending and the Closed Ending. As endings go, the Closed Ending is the less common of the two, characterized by an ending in which the majority of the cast either leaves before the end of the series or is killed in the final few episodes. It’s rather blunt, and difficult to effectively implement, but this blunt nature results in a more tied-together resolution that ends the story in the most direct manner possible. The Open Ending is generally characterized by having a closing scene that opens up a number of possibilities for the characters involved, but not going far enough into the story to warrant continuing the series. This has the effect of never truly ending the show, but instead allowing the audience to construct its own ending, and creating an atmosphere where the story can continue on forever. However, in the case of the Open Ending, care must be taken to not leave too much of an opening and to ensure that what occurs in the story is fully wrapped up before opening up anything further.

It’s an unfortunate fact that most every plotline in existence has been done before, so it’s hard to find new subject matter to base a show off of. However, many series will use very similar plotlines structure-wise, yet by their handling of the characters and the setting, creates a very different experience. There are two in particular that stand out as having a very similar basic framework, yet having a very different experience for the viewer. These two series are Trigun and Trinity Blood. The shows are very, very different, but at their heart, they all have the same storyline progression. It is an often-used storyline—The main character is a wanderer with no real aim, completing various tasks and missions wherever he goes, meeting allies who act as foils, as well as enemies who all have ties to a hidden mastermind, who almost invariably turns out to be a person from the main character’s past, either by blood relation or previous experience. While the details are never readily available, they are almost always portrayed as an ultimate evil, something akin to Adolf Hitler if he took up baby-eating.

To Be Continued...
02:52 PM PDT Permalink |

Shoddy Battle- Taking The Grind Out Of Poke-Battling
One of the biggest problems with RPGs, I find, is the endless grind that comes with leveling and getting items and stuff. This applies triple for MMORPGs, where the only real gameplay element in effect is random grinding- Kill some stuff, loot their corpses, walk ten feet, repeat. For hours and hours on end. But at the same time, it's an integral part of any RPG-style system. This goes for the Pokemon games as well. You have to find the Pokemon that you want, then level them up, evolve them, get the moves you want for them, and in the case of serious upper-tier play, breeding over and over again to get decent IVs or Egg Moves, just to have that perfect team.

Or you can be lazy like me and do the next best thing- Shoddy Battle. Shoddy Battle is a Pokemon simulator that is meant to give all the fun and satisfaction of creating a fun and powerful Pokemon team without the nuisance of having to grind them yourself. The thing is that Shoddy Battle provides the same experience without having to buy the games or put the massive amount of grind time into the game. You can build a team out of whatever Pokemon you want, with any natures, EVs, items, and moves that they can have, and then use either the official Shoddy Battle server or one of the many publically hosted servers. On a server, you can set up your own team, and then either challenge players or let the Find Match function find one for you. There's some lag on the Official Server from time to time, but otherwise, it's usually fine.

If you ever want to challenge me, or just to chat with me, my SN on Shoddy Battle is PH34R-B0T. Hit me up, it's always nice to hear from readers. Until Next Time...
01:15 PM PDT Permalink |